Product Information

Publisher's Description

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Safe. Comfortable. Happy.

Words we all love. Feelings we want. Even crave. We may love God, but being that he's invisible, words like comfortable seem to feel better faster.

We are all chasing something. Our hearts were made to run hard and fast after things that move us. But as a generation we are all beginning to stir and wake up, identifying that these words don't satisfy for long, especially when compared to God. If God is real, and we are going to live with Him forever, shouldn't He be everything?

Caught in this familiar haze of worldly happiness and empty pursuits, Jennie Allen and her husband Zac prayed a courageous prayer of abandonment that took them on an adventure God had written for them.

"God, we will do anything. Anything,"

Anything is a prayer of surrender that will spark something. A prayer that will move us to stop chasing things that just make us feel happy and start living a life that matters. A life that is...

Surrendered. Reckless. Courageous.

If we truly know a God worth giving anything for, everything changes.

From Publisher's Weekly:"Bible teacher Allen (creator of the new Stuck DVD Bible study) comes out of the gate strong, displaying accessibility and purposefulness in her first book. With an eye to the fears and doubts teeming beneath the surface for many female churchgoers, she compels her audience to figure out whats stopping them from using their God-given talents, and to be willing to do anything that God asks of them. By giving readers a glimpse of her own introspection and the interior life shes revealed on her personal blog, she employs heartfelt honesty to connect with readers. Tales of loved ones who have taken the journey to total abandonment show how giving ones life over to a higher purpose can wreck comfortable livesand allow people to seize more important opportunities. Though the book is aimed at women who must balance their calling against more practical tasks like finishing the laundry and shopping at Target, Allens friendly yet urgent messages will have the wheels spinning in the minds of all audiences and may be the tough medicine that propels them to action."

"Jennie Allen is a visionary, a girlfriend, and a Jesus-chaser. I can't think of three qualities I appreciate more in a woman. I loved this book from cover to cover and have been really contemplating the way a one-word prayer can affect one's heart and ministry in this life. I want to be an 'anything' kind of girl, and I appreciate and respect the example Jennie has set in pursuing God and what he desires in us. It's just a word on a paper, but it's a lifetime choice that can make all the difference. You in?" - Angie SmithSpeaker, Women of FaithAuthor, I Will Carry You and What Women Fear

Author Bio

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Jennie Allen is a recovering achiever who is passionate about Jesus. She is the best&shy;selling author of Anything and Restless, and the Bible studies Stuck and Chase, as well as the founder and visionary for the million&shy;-strong IF:Gathering, which exists to gather, equip, and unleash the next generation to live out their purpose. Jennie speaks frequently at conferences such as Catalyst and Q. She holds a masters degree in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary and lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Zac, and their four children.

This book is so good that I used a highlighter pen as my bookmark! It has spoken to my heart and mind and has really helped me see truth in what I am really striving for. Is it for God and all His peace or for worldly comfort and all it's unsettledness? A life changer! Thank you.

What a great book. This author is so easy to understand and follow, and so compelling in her story that I read cover-to-cover and was never bored or distracted, which is rare for me! I have been on a 2 year journey to come to grips with what a real Christ Follower really looks like...living in America, relatively well-to-do, "well-churched"... and of the many books I have read, this one brought that search more into focus for me than any other recent read.

It's a powerful book by Jennie Allen about giving herself to God fully.

It's the kind of book that makes you look around your own world and rethink what is important and what is really necessary.

I think we all reach points in our lives, multiple times in our lives, when we wonder if we are doing enough for God.

When that happens we need to do what Jennie did...

It all started with a simple prayer asking God to do something with her and her family, not just something, but ANYTHING.

I learned a few things from this book that I would love to share with you:

1st: "A.W. Tozer wrote, 'What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us'. NOTHING defines a soul more than what that soul believes about GOD. And no outward observer can know what is in the soul of a person". (pg 7)

2nd: "To risk is to willingly place your life in the hand of an unseen God and an unknown future, then to watch him come through. He tarts to get real when you live like that". (pg.9)

3rd: "His presence is the only place where invisible weight is lifted. The only place where hidden, broken spaces are mended. The only place where we are defined apart from our successes and failures". (pg 32)

4th: "There is no escaping it. He is God, and if our suffering brings him the most glory, let it be. Easy to preach, difficult to live". (pg 56)

5th: "Through our love, we display our God, especially to our spouses and those closest to us and through our radical submission to them, God moves". (pg 87)

6th: "There is always doubts. We doubt because God, while he gets louder, is still invisible, because of the people questioning your sanity and he difficulty of just following a wild invisible God into uncomfortable spaces. We doubt because of the risk, the cost, the abandonment of rights and comforts, the disapproval of people you really love, and then on top of it all, because you now officially picked a fight with the devil". (pg 155)

7th: "So do your everyday and your ordinary, Godliness is found and formed in those places". (pg 165)

Don't those points make you stop and think?

They did for me.

Jennie Allen has a knack for writing it in such a way that I felt I was sitting across from her at the coffee table and just hashing out thoughts and feelings.

Are you looking for a book that will motivate you to view your life differently?

A book that will help you put in perspective how our time here is but a moment and we must live it for HIM?

This is that book.

Even if you aren't fully able to ask God to do ANYTHING with your life, this might be the motivation to ask him to do SOMETHING....baby steps.

I received this book free. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

In ANYTHING: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul, Jennie Allen writes about abandoning our pursuit of the comfortable things in life that make us happy, and choosing to be fully committed to living the life God wants us to live. Somewhere along the way we have chosen to believe that the white picket fence American dream of the 50s is a portrait of a good Christian life: we do what society deems proper, along with a token acknowledgment that God has blessed us.

Jennie Allen writes, "I believe that like every generation before us, we have an opportunity to see God move in our midst . . . to surrender in such a way that we would turn the head and heart of God. He waits for surrendered lives, and he finds them, he floods them. I want to be a part of that."

This is a well-written book that explores the fears, uncertainties, and joy of fully surrendering to God. Examples of her own life and the lives of others are liberally sprinkled in the pages to give this a personalized feel as though the reader is sharing thoughts, prayers, hopes, doubts, and dreams with a good friend. It not only gave me thoughts into my own life and my relationship with God, but inspired me to be more willing to step out in faith and fully trust God to lead me where He wants me to be and know that He is always there to catch me should I stumble along the way.

I received a copy of this book from Shelton Interactive. I was not required to give a good review and all opinions are my own.